


Lost Opportunities

by LizaGreen



Series: Assassin Zuko One Shots [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang madea mistake, Assassin!Zuko, Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), I think I'm going to need to rename this series..., Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, zuko fixes it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25730272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizaGreen/pseuds/LizaGreen
Summary: Aang thought he did the right thing sparing Ozai's life and upholding his airbender ideals. Fire Nation politics disagree.Zuko must use old training to fix this mistake. And weeps in silence on the inside.Iroh wishes the burden never came to his nephew.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Ozai & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Assassin Zuko One Shots [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1072755
Comments: 21
Kudos: 1017





	Lost Opportunities

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'm going to need to change the name of this series. Also, this is a what if scenario should the characters in Shadows of the Night not been involved in the main plot of the show but came back afterwards. 
> 
> Also, Zuko is not an idiot which, for all their faults, I appreciate the comics show and resist the urge to dumb him down for the sake of plot. Unfortunately, the point of this fic never appears in them because they are aimed at children.

Ozai was sat in the cell, curled up as pathetically small as he could get, just as he had been on his last visit. Zuko supposed it must be cold after losing your firebending. It was the opposite when you refused to bend. Nights shivering feverishly for days as Uncle tried to coax him to light a flame flicked through his head. He shook them off, glancing towards the guard beside him. 

Sergeant Kaito was an old friend he wasn’t sure how to introduce to his other, new friends. Certainly, did not know how to explain it to Aang, who knew nothing of the likes of Yumi had her group. 

“And to what do I owe this visit from our generous new Fire Lord?” the man drawled when he spotted who his visitor was. Zuko wondered if he knew the dissonance of his appearance from the confident tones of a professional firebender. Once upon a time, he had been deadly. Now, even Lee from the Earth Kingdom could probably take him on- Ozai and hand to hand combat were not two things that went together. “I told you, I know nothing of your mother.” 

“I’m not here for that,” he said, settling in the chair provided. Kaito stood at parade rest just behind him, protecting the blurry peripheral on his left. Zuko took a breath, heating the water in the pot he brought with him. “I thought we could have some tea.” Ozai eyed him warily. 

Then, he smirked. 

“Needing advice already, on how to rule?” The tone was mocking. Zuko ignored it, keeping his face blank. “I always knew you would come crawling back,” Ozai sneered, crawling his way towards the bars. Zuko had ensured his cage was smaller than Uncle’s had once been, so that he could not stand even if he tried. 

“Perhaps,” Zuko agreed lightly. “You may be a criminal, but you are still my father.” He paused, forcing himself not to destroy the delicate leaves as he dropped them into the pot, stirring carefully, and maintaining a careful, steady heat. Just as Uncle had taught him in all those hours spent on the road to Ba Sing Se and in the shadows of a tea house. 

“Then you are a fool,” Ozai snorted, lip curled in disgust. “I never loved you, small and weak and pathetic as you are.” Kaito was stiff beside him. Zuko ignored this and delicately poured the tea. The scent of Oolong filled the room. 

“I know,” Zuko said, just as calmly as before. “I knew, deep down, the moment you burnt half my face off.” He held out the cup of tea. “And despite all that, I still loved you. A part of me still does.” He tried not to think of the father that had once fished him out of the sea, saving him from drowning, who had held his shoulder in pride at Ember Island, the last time they had felt like a family. Before his mother disappeared. _Before everything changed,_ he thought dully. 

Ozai took the cup and took a sip. Zuko poured himself one but took no drink. They sat in silence a moment, each watching the other. 

“Your Avatar was a fool for not killing me,” Ozai started, just as Zuko knew he would. The man never could pass up an opportunity to gloat. “I hear there are loyal citizens still, who fight for the glory of the Fire Nation.” 

“There are,” Zuko agreed once again. In the near year since he had been Fire Lord, since they had last seen each other, a lot had changed. Uncle Iroh always said he was proud of what Zuko was doing, how well he was creating peace. And Zuko always smiled and silently died on the inside, thinking of all the assassination attempts on his life. Of Azula, making little to no improvements with each visit to her rooms and the doctors telling him to give up on her, catatonic as she was. At first she had been wild, shooting fire from fists and feet and mouth, until Aang deemed her too dangerous. Since then, she had been silent, staring at the walls blankly until, every so often, she would rage and shriek and scream, tearing at anyone, anything in her way, even her own reflection and skin and nails. 

Ozai lent back, looking satisfied. 

“You know it is only a matter of time until they come for me,” he bragged. Zuko shrugged. 

“They might. Some won’t, knowing you are powerless now,” he pointed out. Ozai growled quietly, finishing his cup. Zuko poured him another, his own going slowly cold as he ignored it. 

“You always were ungrateful,” he growled. “All this pressure, I know you cannot handle it. Only a strong ruler can keep the Fire Nation above the traitors and barbarians. I suppose you have handed it all over to the Earth Kingdom and those savage Water Tribes.” 

“No,” Zuko disagreed, steam rising once again from his cup as it heated in his hands. He hissed the words out through gritted teeth. “I would never bring harm to my people. And as for a strong Fire Nation under your rule? Don’t make me laugh.” Anger flashed across Ozai’s face, as he lunged for the bars. 

“What did you dare say to me?!” he howled, teacup hitting and cracking upon the floor, tea spilling across the stone as Ozai clawed at the air between him and his son. Zuko didn’t even flinch. 

“We were not strong,” Zuko repeated. “You favoured fanatics and sycophants like Zhao, allowed factories to overrun and pollute our rivers and ignored the farms, calling for lower and lower conscription ages. Our people _had_ to continue the war, so they didn’t starve, whereas Grandfather and Fire Lord Sozin could have stopped at any time.” He had practised this little speech in the mirror for many nights, going through it with Airi and Kaito, even Yumi at times. Not with any others- Aang could not know about this meeting, could not know what he was about to do. Aang wanted to spare every life, thought every life was sacred. 

Zuko had never been able to afford values like that. 

“I think Grandfather knew what you were like,” he continued before Ozai could start shouting. “I think there was a reason he never even considered handing the throne to you. Because even though you considered Uncle weak, even though Uncle now had no heir, he knew that Uncle would never _weaken_ our people like you. If I had not joined the Avatar, if you had never banished me, the other nations would have risen up and wiped us from the world completely, just as Fire Lord Sozin did to the Air Nomads. Except, of course, that there would be no survivors but the war children, fighting and hiding to keep their lives every day.” He thought again of the archer with that idiot Jet, his telling precision with the bow and how he never spoke. There was only one battalion in the world who fought like that and they most certainly did not belong to the Earth Kingdom. 

No doubt, Jet had never known that either. 

“You fool,” Ozai growled, coughing. “As if you could ever have that kind of influence. I know you and your soft heart. You bend to their whims so easily and our people pay for it.” He coughed again and clutched at his chest. 

“Yes,” Zuko said through the lump in his throat. “I do have a soft heart. But Grandfather knew something about me that you never did.” He watched as Ozai gasped for breath, face slowly turning blue as he choked. His eyes bulged in their sockets, wide and surprised. 

“You... you poisoned... me?” he choked. He sounded as if he couldn’t believe it. 

“You said it yourself. There are still those out there who would put you on the throne,” Zuko said, trying to pretend that watching a man die a slow and painful death didn’t bother him. That this man in front of him didn’t still hold a piece of his heart, small as it was, and how it was dying with him. “And that the Avatar would never take your life. Aang has a soft heart too. I won’t steal it from him as you tried to do with me.” _As Grandfather succeeded._ Kaito laid a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. 

It took Ozai nearly half an hour to die. Zuko sat a watched the whole process, not willing to leave until he knew the deed was done. When he finally breathed his last, Zuko stood, pouring out the spiked tea on the floor, swallowing heavily. 

“It needed to be done,” Kaito said quietly. “It should have been done months ago.” 

“I know,” Zuko replied, hands curled into fists. “I just wish it didn’t have to be me.” 

* * *

A week later, news arrived at the Jasmine Dragon that the ex-Fire Lord Ozai had died of pneumonia in prison and had been buried in a private ceremony. When his nephew stumbled through the door, leading a pale and wide-eyed Azula with gentle hands, he wrapped them both in his arms. 

He pretended just as he had done with Ursa and Azulon, that he did not know what lessons Zuko had taken from his mother. 


End file.
